The conference will focus on "Lower Budgets and Higher Demands: How Do the Sea Services Strike the Right Balance?" Northrop Grumman is a Platinum sponsor of the conference and its exhibit is located in booth #1203.

"WEST is a premier industry event and the largest on the West Coast to address seafaring C4ISR systems development and strategies," said Robert W. "Brick" Nelson, San Diego corporate lead executive, Northrop Grumman. "With the national strategic rebalancing of our armed forces to the Pacific area of operations, the conference is especially important and relevant.

"We look forward to the excellent opportunities for strengthening customer understanding and demonstrating how we can help ensure seamless and synchronized mission operations," said Nelson.

In its booth, Northrop Grumman will feature innovative, affordable and flexible capabilities to help customers contend with the increasing challenges affecting advanced sea service operations:

As a leading provider of full-spectrum cyber solutions to the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, civil/federal agencies and global allies, the company will demonstrate several examples of how it builds cyber into every system, platform and product it produces to enhance mission assurance and resiliency. Demonstrations at the booth include cyber training and visualization tools, the M5 secure network communications system products and numerous cyber defensive technologies.

The company will be showing a mechanism for enhancing Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) training for fleet system administrators. Northrop Grumman will also demonstrate CANES solutions providing a cyber advantage and improved mobile security.

Fire Scout is a fully autonomous unmanned helicopter providing situational awareness and precision targeting for military commanders. The MQ-8B variant has been operational since 2010 and has more than 15,000 flight hours. The larger MQ-8C variant will provide the Navy with increased range, payload and endurance.

The X-47B is a tailless, strike fighter-sized unmanned aircraft developed for the Navy's Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) Carrier Demonstration program. In 2013, it successfully completed the first ever carrier-based launches and recoveries by an autonomous unmanned aircraft. The program is currently maturing relevant launch, landing and integration technologies.